Gabby Giffords Applauds Connecticut Senate for Passing Bipartisan Measure to Prevent People Subject to Temporary Domestic Violence Restraining Orders from Legally Accessing Guns

May 2, 2016 – Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the Co-Founder of the gun violence prevention organization Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), today applauded leaders in the Connecticut Senate for advancing HB 5054, which addresses gaps in Connecticut law to help close the loopholes that allow people under temporary restraining orders to legally buy and own guns.

The legislation had been approved by the House in a bipartisan vote on April 27 and was approved in a bipartisan vote in the Senate today. The legislation now heads to Governor Malloy’s desk.

“I applaud Connecticut’s leaders who stood up for common sense and voted for this responsible bill that will make it harder for abusers to get their hands on guns,” said Congresswoman Giffords. “In the fight to reduce gun violence and save lives, Governor Malloy has been one of our country’s great champions for common sense. I look forward to him signing this badly-needed legislation that will make Connecticut a safer place to live.”

A recent survey of Connecticut voters conducted on behalf of Americans for Responsible Solutions found that 86 percent of Connecticut voters support closing this loophole to help protect domestic violence victims from abusers with access to firearms. Read more about the research here.

Congresswoman Giffords was in Connecticut last year to meet with leaders in the Connecticut legislature and domestic violence prevention community to discuss the nexus of gun violence against women and families, and to call for action on this legislation and other commonsense proposals. Click here and here to read more.

As in the rest of the country, there is an often lethal link between domestic violence situations and an abuser’s access to firearms in Connecticut. Between 2000 and 2011, 175 people in the state of Connecticut were killed by an intimate partner, and 38 percent of these homicides were committed with a gun. In 2010, more than 90 percent of Connecticut domestic violence homicide victims were women.

Nationally, women in the U.S. are 11 times likely to be murdered with a gun than women in other developed countries, and more than half of all murders of America’s women are committed with a gun. Abused women are also five times more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a firearm.